I'm trying to understand how the reputation system should work; and in particular, why my "Reputation Power" is zero. I've been here about 6 months and have around 60 posts.
Until this morning, my Reputation was also zero. Presumably that's because nobody likes what I write, except for one guy who also had a Reputation Power of zero so he doesn't count. (I've since boosted my rep by posting serial numbers for every bit of Pentax kit I own, so it's no longer zero.) In the same way, presumably there's no point in me clicking "like" links for other people until my Reputation Power changes.
Is this what you'd expect? I'm not too bothered by the rep itself, but I found an oldish post which suggested that Reputation Power should increase to 1 after 25 posts, so I am wondering if there is some fault somewhere. If this is how it's supposed to work, it seems an uphill struggle for newcomers.
Edit: to expand on that... As a relative newcomer, I can't presume to help experts. I do sometimes feel I can help other newcomers, especially when they are wrestling with the same problems I had. (Experts sometimes take for granted the very thing the newcomer doesn't yet get.) However, I'm obviously on a hiding to nothing here, because newcomers are unlikely to understand the rep etiquette, and even if they do, they'll inevitably have zero Reputation Power. So we don't get rewarded for helping the very people who need help the most.
I'm not sure what the solution is. I appreciate you can't give newcomers an initial Reputation Power without risking ballot-stuffing behaviour. I don't know whether "likes" given out when RP is zero, start to count retrospectively when RP increases to one; if they do it would help, but not much because many users will disappear forever when their problem is solved, and so never reach 100 posts (or however many are now needed for RP).
Last edited by Brangdon; 01-04-2011 at 12:02 PM.
Reason: Added second section
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